For those of you wanting to read a little history of Beaver Dam and Lake, my entry in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture is now online. I hope you find it useful.
© 2009, Scott Branyan
My fly-fishing column with the Morning News of Northwest Arkansas has been chopped after eight years. The Morning News announced a reduced format and staff layoffs in Friday’s paper. My outdoors editor called today with the news and said all the freelance budgets, including mine, had been cut also.
I had a good run and received several notes of appreciation on articles from readers over the years—something that is rather rare in the newspaper business since readers often only send letters of complaint on articles. I began by writing a weekly column for an experimental outdoors website that DonRey media launched in 2000. After that dissolved, the Morning News picked up my column in its outdoors section. It ran variously, sometimes weekly, sometimes twice monthly, and I had the chance to do feature stories for the outdoors section every now and then.
I don’t know if I will find another newspaper gig or not, but thanks for your interest, readership and comments.
© 2009, Scott Branyan
I fished Beaver tailwater with the Moore brothers on Monday. Fishing didn’t produce the usual large number of stockers, but then I don’t think anybody really cared. It was a special day and deserved a write up in my Morning News column for this week.
© 2009, Scott Branyan
I attended the Hunter Angler Water for Wildlife Summit in Little Rock on Saturday. The event was sponsored by the Arkansas Wildlife Federation and the National Wildlife Federation. The AWF, NWF, Trout Unlimited, Ducks Unlimited, the Izaak Walton League of American, and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Project as well as other groups are working together to support congressional action known as the Clean Water Restoration Act.
In actuality, there were more professional people from agencies/organizations attending than “Joe” Hunter/Angler. However, it was a good networking event. AWF, DU, USACE, ADEQ, AGFC, NWTF, TU, BASS, Friends of the North Fork and White Rivers, and a few universities were also represented. Gene Dunaway from the Friends of the North Fork and White Rivers gave a good presentation also.
You can read more about the conference in my Morning News column for this week.
© 2009, Scott Branyan
Here’s a link to my Morning News column from last Thursday.
© 2009, Scott Branyan
I was able to check out the tailwater accesses Monday. Everything looks pretty good, and it is nice to see the low water levels.
Read my Morning News column for this week for more information and announcement about the Arkansas Chapter of Trout Unlimited Spring Conservation Banquet.
© 2009, Scott Branyan
The Army Corps of Engineers finally put out a press release on their website on the minimum flow study Record of Decision.
My Morning News column from this week on the minimum flow issue is available here also.
In addition, Southwestern Power Administration has also released its 273 page Final Determination Report on the offset costs allocated to the federal and non-federal hydropower purpose. The estimated non-federal Ozark Beach hydroelectric project cost is $41,319,400, and the credit estimated due to federal hydropower is $109,920,200. The estimate was determined on the basis of the estimated future lifetime replacement cost of the electrical energy and capacity using present rates and assuming an implementation date of January 1, 2011 for the project.
The final cost will depend on the date of implementation determined by the Corps of Engineers and the actual costs in effect at that time. These cost estimates do not reflect the cost of construction and modifications to equipment at the dams.
© 2009, Scott Branyan
Read my Morning News column from today online or in the paper. It highlights the new 24-inch minimum regulation on brown trout for Bull Shoals and Norfork tailwaters.
Happy reading.
© 2009, Scott Branyan
[This post is a fuller version of my article which ran in the Morning News Outdoors Section today.]
Long before the first white settler celebrated a Thanksgiving or Christmas along the White River, there were native tribes of Quapaw and Osage in what would become known as Arkansas. Quapaw mostly lived in the Delta and Coastal plains of Arkansas. The Osage lived primarily in Missouri but would come into the Ozarks of northern Arkansas to hunt.
Then the Louisiana Purchase happened. Explorers and a few settlers discovered the rugged interior of the Ozark Mountains by following the White River out of the delta. They found a beautiful land of mountain top vistas and hills and ravines connected by a network of streams and rivers. In a few areas, there was good farm land, but mostly early settlers had to subsist by hunting and fishing.
A series of events led to more people inflowing into the territory. The Indian Removal Act, which was finalized in 1836, forced the removal of native peoples into Indian Territory in what would become Oklahoma. In the same year Arkansas entered the Union as the 25th state. By 1850 steamboats were bringing numerous settlers up the White River. By the 1880s, steamboats were displaced by railroads. The last steamboat ran up the White in 1906.
Settlers had a dire impact on the environment within the first 50 years or so. Forests were cleared, wildlife was killed off. In the first couple of decades of the 20th century the state of Arkansas was starting fish hatcheries to replenish the rivers and streams.
The great Mississippi Flood of 1927 also affected the White and Arkansas Rivers. Flood control acts followed and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers began dam construction on the White River. The cold water which came out from below the high head dams displaced native smallmouth, and congressional mitigation plans replaced them with trout.
A lot has transpired over the past 150 years or so; and we take a lot more for granted. For example, what is the life expectancy of a dam? Will there always be tailwaters? Will we always have trout below them?
It doesn’t take much of an historical perspective to realize, tailwater trout in Arkansas, at this time, are a real gift. We should be making the most of the moment.
Conservationists need to continue to be proactive, engaging state and federal agencies to move beyond the basic principle of conservation, which is replenishment or re-stocking. We have very few wild trout fisheries in Arkansas. There is no doubt many anglers feel we need more.
The wild trout we have, such as for brown trout in the Little Red River, have been very productive. Wild trout could and should be a much larger component of Arkansas’ trout management; but one cannot expect them to do well where stocked trout have difficulty.
This regulation sign greets anglers at the Winkley Shoal boat ramp below Greers Ferry dam. The sign regulations in this photo and the one below illustrate the difference between basic and progressive conservation. The first addresses restocking in a subsistance fishery; the second provides quality water with special regulations aimed at providing trout the opportunity to reproduce and thrive.
This sign greets anglers at Collins Creek below Greers Ferry dam. The project is an example of a progressive conservation project in Arkansas. The Corps of Engineers along with Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Arkansas Fly Fishers, as well as many other organizations, were able to rehabilitate the stream and put a constant flow of water into the channel from the dam. The stream now is a regulated wild trout stream for youth anglers.
Low water flows from the dams and water quality issues such as low dissolved oxygen need to be corrected sooner than later. Correcting these issues would not only give us cleaner water and help stocked trout to thrive, but would move toward the possibility of more naturally produced trout.
My Christmas wish is that anglers and especially local, state, and federal agencies would learn that positive cooperation among themselves advances the general public good. Improving water quality for trout is also a good deal for Arkansans, whether native and otherwise.
© 2008, Scott Branyan
All flood storage is about gone from the five White River reservoirs in Arkansas. Anglers are anxious to find wadable water conditions in the Ozark tailwaters below the dams. They should get their wish soon at least for a few hours per day.
Anglers may also want to view two important recent reports on low dissolved oxygen levels and minimum flow and send comments before deadlines expire. Read my column in Thursday’s Morning News or here online for more information.
© 2008, Scott Branyan
